Resurrected Philips CD104 CD player

[Big John]

I have a 1984 Philips CD104 CD player (grey case) retired in the 1990's when it persistently malfunctioned.
I did some research on the internet, it appears that most problems with this CD player result from "Griplets" a type of hollow rivet that goes through the double sided PCB joining the ground planes.
The "Griplets" fail simply re-soldering does not work even if a meter shows continuity! Working with my son we did as as strongly suggested on various forums used a fine drill the "Griplets" identifiable as blobs of solder were drilled through then wires were pushed through and soldered on each side. This player has fixed signal/phono leads so a pair of my DIY leads were soldered in place, though we had chassis RCA sockets to hand this saved on soldered joints.

The result was even better than I remembered & functioned flawlessly.

The CD104 uses a TDA1540 DAC chip which is 14 bit when Philips discovered that Sony and others were coming to the market with 16 bit Players Philips pushed it's engineers into adding oversampling in the guise of a SAA7030 error correction chip. My reading indicates a Non Oversampling (NOS) mod which involves desoldering & removing the SAA7030 chip and adding a 1k resistor to an isolated leg on another chip to provide 5v to enable 14 bit's to be read, the result is worth the effort and will come next

Below is a photo from the internet showing the cross wiring replacing the SAA7030 chip and resistor together with a few of the "Griplets".

 

[Chaggy78]

Sounds interesting John let us know how it sounds in NOS mode.

 

[Dowser]

Nice one - good to keep these old players running. Rather than NOS they also respond well to a simple discrete output stage straight from the DACs output.

 

[Wick]

Hmmmm... I have 2 of these. One works well but the other spins up and then runs down again. Maybe it's time I took the lid off.

 

[rhgbristol]

I had one of these brand new in December 1984, right up until 1990 and very happy with it.

I now have another one out in my office system, and it's never disgraced itself even up against several much new players costing several times as much.

Only problem, is mains switch has stuck in - fortunately in on position.

Most unlike me, have not even opened it up yet to mend it - as just love listening to it., and switch it on and off at the main system switch.

Anybody know what switch mechanism it uses?

I thought I read somewhere it was an ITT latching switch??

 

[Big John]

I have bought from Ebay this "Nos reclock PCB for TDA1540 SAA7030 based dacs and players" ie not just the NOS mod by just removing the SAA7030 chip and soldering in 4 wires this apparently reclocks the TDA1540 chips (x2).

I will report on progress...

http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/710-5...0001&campid=5338728743&icep_item=200842336715

 

[Big John]

Unsoldering the SAA7030 Over-sampling chip & fitting a 24 pin IC socket, then plugging in the No Overall Sampling PCB with flip/flop IC reclocking the CD104 the results of which are beyond belief gone from 16 bit to 14 bit now have more detail better bass; sounds so natural best thing I have bought off Ebay.

Also soldered Ik resistor from pin 18 to pin 16 cutting track on the SAA7000 to get 5v and make chip recognise 14 bit

 

[Big John]

A few thoughts on this NOS Philips CD104

This CD104 is in my son's system comprising my phono leads, John jnr built TNT PreAmble Nuvista preamp + bluetooth a 150 WPC @ 8 ohms dual mono mosfet poweramp with enormous power supply's, 1.5m Ubyte speaker cables, Professionally modded TDL studio 10 speakers (crossovers upgraded & ports moved to the front) courtesy of Mark the Ming, this is not one of the" TDL transmission line" designs as John jnr is sensitive to the bass time delay/smeer of a TL.

Quite different to the quads & all valves in my system, however I have listened to a couple of my Chesky HQ CD's before and after,

Slightly less overall gain. Small hint of harshness gone treble sweeter with more detail, mids more open again more detail better balanced, bass deeper not bloated better defined, John jnr listening to a Deadmause track which he knows well said he was hearing effects & notes he had not heard before, this is not a small difference; all in all it sounds natural/right in John's system.
This Ebay kit works brilliantly! John jnr is an electronics & engineering student he de-soldered the 24 pin SAA7030 despite working on alternate ends/sides to avoid heat soak there was still a little crisping of this 30+ year old PCB hence the IC socket had it gone T*t's up it would have enabled reinstatement of the SAA7030 without more soldering.

I still have the replacement for the CD104 a John Westlake designed Cambridge CD4 se (not a simple CD4) and he rates it as one of his best. It is the only CD player I had ever heard/liked under £1500 this modded CD104 probably edges it, John Westlake said a few years ago that the first up grade should be a discreet output, I feel a valve output coming on...

 

[Dowser]

Hmmm - sell your CD4 to me

 

[Big John]

Hmmm - sell your CD4 to me

The Philips CD104 is in my son's system The Cambridge CD4 se is in mine as I have not tried the Philips CD104 in my system the grading of the 2 is very subjective
I am simply amazed how a 14 bit set up blows away the 16 bit as sold original.

The Cambridge CD4 se is going nowhere fast It still beats most CD players I have heard after the success of John jnr's foray into Nuvistas with his preamp & from looking at the specs the CS 4327 DAC + output chip cries out for a valve output stage whether Nuvista or Russian glass subminiture (pencil) valves or even 6N6P/6N2p or a 6dj8 variant. I know a man etc.